November 18, 2024 • 52 mins
Jason Timpf shares his NBA power rankings featuring Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors moving into the top two, LeBron James's Los Angeles Lakers climbing up the list, and Donovan Mitchell's Cleveland Cavaliers remaining in the top overall spot with a 15-0 record!
Timeline:
2:45 - Introduction
7:00 - #10 Knicks
11:45 - #9 Nuggets
12:30 - #8 Timberwolves
26:00 - #7 Suns
27:15 - #6 Lakers
37:00 - #5 Rockets
47:00 - #4 Celtics
50:00 - #3 Thunder
54:00 - #2 Warriors
01:02:30 - #1 Cavaliers
(Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the Volume having fun day.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Everybody, Oh ball.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you guys at an incredible weekend, you got a
damp pack show for you. Today, we're doing our weekly
edition of Power Rankings. We're gonna hit on ten teams,
but I also have a couple of other teams that
we're gonna hit on. Kind of in the rankings, as
we talked about some of the games these guys play,
We're gonna be bouncing all around the league today. You
guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT
(00:39):
so you guys don't miss show announcements. Somet't forget about
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Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful if you leave a
rating and a review on that front. We also have
brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
for Hoops Tonight where we're gonna be releasing more content
like reels and stuff like that over the course of
the season, So make sure you follow those and then
We're doing another mail bag that I'm recording on this
third and I'm going to be using the comments from
(01:02):
the shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, So make sure
you drop mail bag questions in these. We're gonna be
trying to hit on some of the teams that we
haven't hit on yet in those mail bags. So any
questions you guys have about anything around the league, make
sure you drop them in those mail bag questions and
we will get to them in the show that's going
to air on Friday. And then last minut at least
before we get started, I want to talk to you
(01:22):
guys about Game Time. I personally have used game Time
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(01:43):
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game time today? What time is it? Game time? All right,
let's talk some basketball. So let's before we get into
the power rankings. I did that one crazy stat I
wanted to show you guys as I was digging into
the gap between the East and the West to start
(03:05):
this year. So Oklahoma City has six wins against teams
that are five hundred or better. If you took the
top five teams in the Eastern Conference. Okay, so that's Cleveland, Boston, Orlando,
New York, and Detroit. Those are the five best records.
Shout out to the Detroit Pistons with the fifth best
record in the East right now. But with those five teams,
(03:27):
they have combined to win six games against teams that
are five hundred are better. Oklahoma City has six by themselves.
The four teams that I had ranked as the top
teams in the East to start the year, that's Boston,
New York, Milwaukee, and Philly. Those four teams are combined
one in seventeen against teams that are five hundred are
better to start the year, with the one win obviously
(03:48):
being Boston beating up the Knicks on opening nights. So like,
the East has always been a little weaker than the West,
but man, does it feel like a giant chasm to
start the season. It's been such a strange year on
that front. I do think things will level out, and
I do think several teams will play better. Injuries are
important context too. Obviously you've had injuries in Philly. You've
(04:08):
had you know, Pala Bonkaro's been out for a while,
There's Jimmy Butler's already missed time. There's a bunch of
guys that have missed time. So that's part of it,
and I do think things will even out. But it
is kind of crazy the gap between the East and
the West that we've seen to start this year. All right,
let's get started with our rankings. Number ten, the New
York Knicks. They were a Josh Hart foul, kind of
like a rear view contest on Kobe White away from
(04:30):
having a four to o week, but it was a foul.
Kobe White made all three free throws. Jalen Brunson's turned
around fade away over his left shoulder, rimmed out and
the Knicks had a three to one week Still impressive,
still starting to gain some ground. They keep ending up
in these super close games. The first Nets game was
crazy too, like the Knicks were up six with a
minute and forty three seconds left and the Nets scored
(04:50):
six consecutive points or seven consecutive points to get a
one point lead before Jalen Brunson hit that ISO three
on the left wing that ended up giving him the win.
Every one of their games kind of seems to be
following that path. Either they're falling down big and having
to scram back into games, or they have big leads
that they're blowing late and they end up in these
like one or two possession games, and those clutch situations
(05:10):
have been where they've struggled. They're just two and five
this season in games that have involved a clutch situation,
and they've been bad on both ends. The offensive rating
in the clutch is at ninety one to start this season,
mostly just missing shots there, Like Brunson is five for
fifteen in the clutch this year. That's gonna get better,
and he hit a big one against Brooklyn the other
night as you guys know as a team, they're two
(05:30):
for fourteen from three in the clutch, and there's some
good looks in there, like Jalen Brunson wide open catch
and shoot three is campaign wide open catch and shoot three,
McHale bridges wide up catching shoot three. There's open looks
in there that they're just missing. So like some of that,
I'm not as worried about when it comes to the
offensive end of the floor. They have too much talent.
(05:51):
They're third in offense overall for the season. I think
they're gonna be able to score at the end of game,
so that I'm looking at as more as a fluke.
They have a one thirty five defensive rate in the
clutch though, that's the part that I'm really struggling about
struggling with, and like on tape, they're really struggling to
guard the ball. Teams are just running down the floor
and driving right around them and getting to the rim
(06:11):
iod as soon move multiple times and crunch time against
the bulls, just getting the ball sometimes off of made
baskets and just slashing down the lane and getting layups.
Zach Lavine just getting to his spot easily against McHale
Bridges and knocking down easy jump shots over the top.
In the Nets game, it was everybody but like Cam
Johnson in crunch time, just driving to the rim and
getting layups, or just coming hard off of a screen
(06:33):
and getting down into the lane and wrecking having for them,
like this was a team that I thought would be
better guarding the ball. McHale, Bridges and og And and
Obi and Josh Hard are all guys that are kind
of in terms of their reputation, they're good defensive players,
but they're just not playing good defense. And so the
Knicks have really struggled to guard the ball all year.
It's a big part of why they've been bottom ten again.
(06:54):
If you want to be encouraged, this isn't like the Lakers.
The Lakers are going to struggle to guard the ball
until they make a roster move. You have the pieces,
guys just have to play better. And it's kind of
funny how this comes down to this sort of thing
where like a lot of times, we associate our belief
system about a team or what they're capable of on reputation,
and reputation doesn't mean anything in basketball. All that really
(07:15):
matters is how well are you playing right. Like, so
much about whether or not a team is playing well
comes down to like whether or not guys are playing well, right. Like, So,
you have a couple of key role players that aren't
playing well, and a couple of key defenders that aren't
defending as well as they typically do, and you're going
to underachieve. But if you get a couple of guys
that are playing above their pay grade and a couple
of guys that are in good rhythm and everybody's locked
(07:37):
in and doing their jobs, all of a sudden, you
go on a run and you can win a bunch
of games in a row, right, And so like that's
what's super fascinating about the talk about what a team
looks like on paper before the year, and then it
kind of starting to come to fruition, Like the Knicks
have a ton of talent, but in some specific ways
on the defensive end of the floor, they're not actually
really utilizing that talent the way that they're capable of.
And so that's the part that's weird. I'm watching these
(07:59):
cold those games and it's like I'm watching historically good
defenders just not do a good job on the ball
as they continue to get pick apart and some of
it some of it is the weak points. Yeah, like
they like Nikola Vusovich was going right at Karl Anthony
Towns in the Bulls game and was just given him
buckets down on the block, and some of that is
like vuc is a good post player and Kat's a
(08:20):
mediocre defensive player, So there's gonna be some you know,
advantage that you're giving up there. But again, I've watched
Karl Anthony Towns do a really good job on Nikola
Jokic before, so that kind of goes back to the
point you made earlier, where like a lot of it
just has to do with how well your guys are playing.
So like the answer here for the Knicks is on offense,
when they get in these close games, they need their
guys to hit shots that they're capable of hitting. And
(08:42):
on defense, they need their good defensive players that have
been good defensive players throughout their career to be good
defensive players. And then that should turn around a lot
of the issues that they've had to this point in
the season. And then again a lot of the concern
about rim protection and stuff like that, like we're going
to see a different look when Mitchell Robinson comes back,
or if they end up making a move for center
at some point in time.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Like, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Really worried about him in the big picture, but there's
no doubt that to start this season they're just not
playing up to their potential. And I you know again,
I had them in the top four and here they
are after a little bit of a streak at three
to one, still have them at ten in the Power
rankings Number nine the Denver Nuggets. Not gonna spend too
much time here. They only had two games last week
at New Orleans and at Memphis. Jokic missed both games
(09:23):
for the birth of his child. Just a reminder of
how valuable Jokic is to this team. Like Jamal Murray
still looks like a shell of himself. These young players,
they're capable of winning within the context of Jokic when
he can like provide the structure for them to be
able to impact the game on offense. But like obviously,
when Yokic isn't out there, they're just raw young players
(09:43):
with some talent. Right Russell Westbrook has been good at
times this year, but he wasn't able to bring much
next week or last week. And they ended up going
zero in two. So the Nuggets through twelve games at
this point are thirty five point one points better per
one hundred possessions with Jokic on the floor versus off
the floor. So in a weird way, the two games
out next week just or last week just shined a
big flashlight on NICOLEA. Jokic and how valuable he is
(10:07):
to this particular team. Number eight, the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's
such a weird week. They dropped back to back games
in Portland, like literally on the road in Portland, back
to back. You lose the first one, you think they
bounce back and win the next night, they end up
losing again. Now again, Portland is feisty. I think they're
six and eight now, they've won three in a row.
Shadan Sharp is averaging twenty seven points a game in
(10:28):
this three game winning streak, and they're getting really high
quality center play out of Robert Williams and Donovan Klingen.
So like they kind of have the depth situation at center,
they probably are going to be a team that someone's
going to target for a center at some point before
the deadline. So Portland's a little feisty, but Minnesota drops
back to back games in Portland, then they go into
Sacramento and get a win, and then they end up
beating Phoenix with that crazy Julius Randall game winner the
(10:50):
other day. So, like, what's interesting is if you talk
to Minnesota fans, that's what they'll tell you is their
biggest issue this season. Their biggest issue this season is
their competitive edge. It's just not the same that it
was last year. That their willingness to just get dirty
on defense and physical and grind games down into the mud,
the chip on their shoulder, right, like, it's just not there,
(11:11):
and it's showing up, mostly with the fact that they
seem to get up for the good teams and then
play down to the competition against the bad teams, like
in that way. Last week was a perfect example of it. Right,
you drop two games against a team that we all
view as a lottery team in Portland, and then you
end up going to play two like legitimate Western Conference
playoff teams and you beat them both. Right on the season,
(11:35):
the Timberwolves are four and two against teams that are
five hundred or better, but they've lost four games to
teams that are below five hundred, So like there's definitely
a little bit of like a chip on their shoulder issue,
Like they just don't seem to be attacking the regular
season the way they did last year. Now, some of
this is the reality of the way these teams like
(11:55):
kind of like progress through their goals of trying to
get to, you know, winning achampionship, or at least in
their attempts to win a championship. What I mean by
that is like there's always like that first season where
you end up getting into the playoffs and it's like
a cool experience, right, And we've seen that with Minnesota
over the last or the two previous years, right with
(12:15):
their series against Memphis and then their series against Denver,
and then the next phase is like, wait, we're super
talented and we can kick everybody's butt in the regular season.
That was last year, right, Minnesota near the top of
the standings all year as they were just consistently good.
Their defense I believe was best in the league last year.
They just kicked everybody's butt all year long. But then
(12:38):
you end up going from there into usually a longer
playoff run.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's what last year was, right, the.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Longer playoff run you have a first round series against Phoenix,
you have a second round series against Denver that goes
seven games. You're in the Western Conference finals. Right now,
as you go into the following season, you're in this
weird position where now the guys understand how long of
a journey this is. They started playing super hard in
October last year and they got eliminated in late May,
(13:05):
and they played a long stretch of playoff games. They
ended up playing what that was sixteen playoff games, right,
And so what that does is that starts to creep
into their minds and now they're not going to attack
the regular season with the same level of ferocity naturally
that you would. The reason why they did last year
is because they've never gone on a long playoff run.
(13:26):
They've never had that feeling of what it's like to
have that type of season. Once you start to have
that type of season, you start to understand this is
actually a really, really long journey. And so now you're
in the phase where you have to self motivate. Now
you're in the phase where it's like, okay, yeah, you're right, Like,
we're not going to go just crazy balls to the
walls from October through April. But at the same time,
(13:48):
we have to establish habits because NBA history does tell
us that you don't win the title unless you attack
the regular season from start to finish. So again, it's
like I've seen this so many times with young teams.
It's kind of like Memphis a couple of years ago,
right where they just rack up a bunch of wins.
Oklahoma City. I'm really curious to watch them this year.
They had their first year last year where they kicked
(14:08):
everybody's button in the regular season, got a super high seed,
had a somewhat long playoff run. I'm curious to see
how they undergo the length of this eighty two game
regular season and whether or not they run into any
lolls where they struggle. They're young enough that I don't
think it'll matter as much, but this Minnesota team is
definitely dealing with a little bit of a motivational issue
in the regular season. And all I would say is like,
(14:31):
as long as you end up with a good enough seed,
it's okay to have your downs and your ups over
the course of the season. But NBA history tells us
if you crawl into the playoffs as somewhere in that
five to eight range, you're not getting anything done. NBA
history tells us it's the teams that attack the regular
season from start to finish and have fewer loles and
have more extended stretches of success. Those are the teams
(14:54):
that end up going on long playoff runs. And so
when it comes to Minnesota, I think, like I think
it's important to understand that this is just part of
the pathway that some of these teams take, but they
need to be careful. They're playing with a little bit
of fire with some of their lack of enthusiasm over
the course of the season. Now, one thing on a
positive note, they've proven extremely difficult to guard in the clutch.
(15:15):
This is a very big difference from last year where
Minnesota really really struggled to score, especially at the end
of games. They've been the fourth best clutch offense in
the league to start the season. And mostly it comes
down to the fact that they have two really difficult
athletes to deal with. Yesterday, Julius Randall just like a
hard dribble towards his right into his step back, He's
gonna get plenty of separation. Julius is a really big athlete.
(15:39):
He's gonna get good looks for himself in those situations,
and you kind of just have to hope he misses. Unfortunately,
he's been over his career a pretty streaky jump shooter,
so most teams feel like they can get away with that.
But he's been shooting the ball well this year, and
he hit that step back three and the Timberwolves gotta
win the Kings game. I was watching that one actually
watch that game live. Like Darren Fox has going for sixty.
(16:01):
He's like in the zone of all zones right now,
like just completely locked in.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No one can keep him in front off the dribble.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
He's making all of his jump shots, and Ant just
kind of stays in the game, and then when we
get to late regulation, he just takes over and he
gets these two crazy slaloming drives in the lane through
all this traffic and gets a couple and ones. And
then he goes into overtime and he's hitting tough, contested
jump shots because he gets so much lyft that he
could just get to a jump shot whenever he wants.
(16:28):
He makes two huge kickout reads to Julius Randall and
Jaden McDaniels for catch and shoot threes. That end up
icing that game in overtime and you survive a sixty
piece from Deer and Fox. Like, they are scoring really
well in the clutch, because Anthony Edwards has gone up
a level in a real way to start this season,
and Julius Randall is another guy that can consistently create
(16:49):
his own shot, even at a higher level than Carl
Anthony towns A did for this team, and so like
they're just hard to guard in the clutch, and that's
a huge positive sign there. But they're definitely going to
have to get their defense back where it was last year.
They're definitely going to have to get back into that
level of effort and intensity on a more consistent level
throughout the regular season if they have any serious goals
(17:10):
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Speaker 2 (18:48):
Number seven. The Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
They are one in four in the five games since
Kevin Durant went down with his cap injury. They've been
bat on both ends of the floor, which is no surprise.
KD has been vitally important to them on both ends
of the floor. The Bial has missed the last three
games too, so teams have really been able to load
up on Devin Booker. The Olkgaama City game in particular,
they were just putting two on the ball every single
time he got screened.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Every ISO or post up.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
They're hard helping off the ball like he's just getting
the kitchen sing thrown at him. And the Suns have
had a lot of lineups with Bil and Durant out
where they've had multiple limited offensive players on the floor,
and as a result of that they've had some struggles.
I mean, use off Nurkic has been an absolute disaster.
He's just three for twenty three from the floor over
the course of the five games since KD went down.
(19:31):
The I've never seen a big man who's this bad
at making layups. He's thirteen for twenty seven on layups
this year. That's below fifty percent. But like, again, this
is something I talked about last year too. Last year
he was only fifty three percent on layups. It's the
craziest thing, Like he's this big human who's stronger than everybody,
but for some reason, like can't just make simple, easy.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Touch shots around the basket.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Now, if you're looking for a bright side, it's what
we saw from Devin Booker against Minnesota yesterday was by
far the best he's looked season. He had forty four points,
six rebounds, and seven assists. He came into that game
averaging just twenty two and a half points per game
on the season on just forty two percent from the
field and thirty four percent from three. He had hit
thirty points just three times in his first thirteen games.
So Booker getting back into the form would be huge
(20:16):
for them, and obviously last night against Minnesota was a
big step in that direction. Number six the Los Angeles Lakers.
They've won five games in a row, although it's been
against a very easy stretch of their schedule. The one
game that I thought was impressive in the five game
win streak was the win in San Antonio. That was
a game that I had marked as a loss. San
Antonio had been five and five and two at home
(20:36):
going into that game, and they'd beaten some good Western
Conference teams there, specifically Minnesota in Sacramento, and San Antonio
jumped to me early, they went up eleven zero, but
they just methodically got their way back into that game
and got a good win on the road. Their offense
just continues to be super impressive. Their fifth in offensive rating,
their sixth and a half court offense. They have just
an incredible combination of skill basketball IQ and organization from
(21:00):
the coaching staff on the offensive end, and it's just beautiful.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I'm going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I was watching the Pells game the other night, and
first of all, shout out to Joel Myers and Antonio Daniels.
They I was like watching that game and there was
a really interesting kind of like chess match going on
in the second half as the Pells were dealing with
all the screening action that Dalton was getting to get
open and the Lakers consistently attacking switching by trying to
(21:25):
get Smalls onto Anthony Davis, and he was just doing
a ton of damage in the post and in in
offensive rebound situations, and then the Pelicans were like struggling
to get the ball to brandon Ingram in spots where
he could really do any work, and they were kind
of ignoring some of the Pelicans non shooters in that sequence.
It was like a really interesting kind of chess match.
And like, I've watched a lot of broadcasts from a
(21:46):
lot of groups around the league, and Joel Myers and
Antonio Daniels, both of them were just completely on top
of that chess match the entire game, calling out everything
that was happening, talking about the different things they needed
to do. I just really appreciated it, and I hope
that we get more broadcast duos like them over time
in the league because it just made watching that game
(22:06):
so much more enjoyable, and quite frankly, I think it
would just be really good for all the casual fans
around the league to understand some of the tactical battle
that takes place live, and it's really hard to do
when it's happening live compared to when you can watch
film and take your sweet time with it over hours.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Right, So shout out to those guys.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Anyway, I was watching the Pells game and the second
half was just an offensive masterclass. The Lakers played with
great pace, They got the ball at the floor quickly.
They did like a good combination of like some freelance
stuff in semi transition where guards would just throw screens
at Anthony Davis's man just to try to force quick
switches like early in the shot clock, at which point
they would just then try to post up or maybe
(22:46):
get a shot up on the rim where Anthony Davis
could get an offensive rebound. But they also did it
through sets as well, just like they were running sets
to try to get daln Connect open, and the Pelicans
were attacking that by switching, which was getting more opportunities
for Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis to attack mismatches all of
the guard guards screening that they were doing, and Antonio
(23:06):
Daniels was doing a really nice job calling out how
like the Pelicans kept botching guard guard screens, and like
we talked about this all the time, but like the
more action you run, the more opportunity there is for
the defense to make mistakes. And the Pelicans were just
making a lot of mistakes on like basic kind of
screening actions that they were running, and a bunch of
guys were getting open or getting switches that were favorable
for the Lakers. And then Austin and Di Loo, both
(23:27):
of them are so good at operating in five out
inside the three point line as like screeners slippers and
his connective passers. There was a play where like Austin
reeves kind of made himself available along the baseline, catches
right behind the backboard, but he knows what's happening around him,
and he knows that Dalton is open because Dalton's man
is rotating to Austin, He on the catch just blindly
(23:49):
turns and whips it to the left corner. Dalton catches
and shoots at three. There Again, that's connective passing. Austin's
the open guy even though he's not really in a
position to score, but Austin understands the next pass and
the chain and he's able to generate a wide open
look for Dalton.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Connect right.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Or there was a play where Anthony Davis gets double
teamed on the post in the post on the left
block and the Pels do a really nice job pressuring Ad,
and so they're pressuring Ad so hard that he's not
able to really turn and see the floor, and Sodlo
makes himself available up on the left wing and Ad
has no choice but to throw it back out to
d Lo. Now there's a split second after Dlo catches
(24:26):
it where you can make a kill pass, and if
you don't make the kill pass, and that split second,
New Orleans is going to rotate back out and the
advantage is gone. It's Dalton connects cutting right down the
lane and d Lo right on the catch. One times
it to Dalton and Dalton ends up getting a dunk
in the lane, and it's like, that's just those are
the ways that Austin and di Loo connect things with
(24:49):
their passing without necessarily having to run a ball screen
or drive a close out or do something in a
spot up situation. They're doing it screening, slipping, cutting in
the interior. You're part of the floor, and they're taking
advantage of double teams that other players are getting and
making the connective passes to get to the player that
can actually finish the play. They're kind of relentless with
(25:11):
their execution. They have so many smart players who know
how to play. When defenses make a mistake with the switch,
everyone on the floor will immediately recognize it and start
pointing to that guy. They're going to find a way
to get the ball to that guy. They stay organized,
they're freelancing less than ever, and they're killing teams in
the clutch. They have the third best clutch offense in
the league. Lebron James, Austin Reeves and Anthony Davis are
seventeen for twenty seven from the field in the clutch
(25:33):
this year. A lot of three man action. There was
a game that they closed just running stack over and
over again where it's like Lebron coming off of the
ball screen with Ad as Austin is backscreening the role
man as he goes, and there was sequences there where
Anthony Davis was popping and hitting threes out of stack.
Then against the Pelicans, they were like spamming like a
(25:53):
horn set where they would just throw the ball to
Lebron James on the left elbow with Austin Reeves at
the top of the key. AD's at the right elbow
and Austin would cut down and then as Austin was
going off of a pin in flare with Dalton connect
on the weak side in the right corner. Then Lebron
would come off of a ball screen with Ad And
because Austin and Dalton are running off ball action, and
(26:16):
if you've cut that off ball action, you have a
good shooter over there. Lebron is able to turn the
corner and get into the lane and make layups. And
so they were able to spam that action and get
a bunch of good stuff at it. They're relentless with
their execution. They have so many different ways that they
can attack. They have like everyone in their lineups is
like a legitimately very good offensive player. You know, Austin
(26:37):
is good two man game chemistry with both Lebron and
Anthony Davis. I'm loving Dalton Connect with the starters. I
think I was talking with my friend Pete, I think
does the best team specific podcast in the entire basketball world.
If you're a Laker fan and you're not listening to
Laker Film Room and the work that Pete and Darius do,
you're missing out. Those guys are literally the best at
(26:57):
what they do. So I highly recommend you guys check
that out if you haven't. But I was talking with
Pete about it yesterday because like, I want Dalton to start,
And this was Pete's original idea. He was on it
early in the season, like like a week or two
into the season. He was like, I think Dalton could
start for this team. It was kind of when Dilo
was struggling, and you know, there are some concerns about
whether or not he was ready for it. But my
thing is, like, I think Dalton's athletic, and like how
(27:18):
much am I going to be harping on athleticism today.
I've already done it a little bit earlier. I'm gonna
be doing it again here in a minute with Houston.
We're gonna do it again with Golden State later, Like
athleticism is huge, and like Lebron and ad are the
only two plus athletes in the starting lineup when you
have Ruey, Austin and Dlo out there, right, and so like,
Dalton is a very good athlete. He literally had a
poster dunk yesterday and or was it two days ago?
(27:40):
Two days ago he had a poster dunk. Two days
ago he had like a play on a curl where
he got downhill and got a dunk. Like he's athletic
the way I see it is. I want Austin, Dalton
van Do when he's healthy, than Lebron and Ad because
you can use van Do as the primary point of
attack defender and is more of a screening folkrum. And
then Austin, Lebron and Dalton become your ball handling folkrums
(28:03):
and Adan Vando become your screening folkrums. You've got tons
of athleticism in that lineup because Dalton good athlete, vand
O good athlete, Lebron good athlete, Ad good athlete. Austin
is now the least athletic player in the lineup. That
is something that I think works from an athleticism standpoint.
And I love Dalton with the starters because he's an
off ball scorer, which is key. Off ball scoring is
(28:25):
key when I feel like a guy's gonna give me
twenty twenty five a night, and I'm not actually like
putting the ball in his hands, I'm actually putting the
ball in Austin's hands or Lebron's hands while Dalton's running around.
I like that because that's really complimentary scoring. It's scoring
that doesn't yank on the rope and actually cause another
player to get out of rhythm. If that makes sense.
(28:46):
And then also it's so much high IQ in that lineup.
If you had Vandam, Austin, Vandal Lebron and Ad, that's
a lot of really smart defenders. And so with that
you could craft a really achievable defensive role for Dalton
that I think makes a lot of sense. And then
for a team that struggled with bench scoring, now you
have d Lo and Ruiy as guys that can come
in as bench scores and you can play them with
your athletes. Christian Koloco has been a really interesting kind
(29:08):
of defensive fit as a backup center. If you put
him out there with Gabe, you know, if you go
Gabe d Low and then you go like Cam Ruy Christian,
You've got two really high level offensive players around guys
that are pretty solid defensive players, right, and then you
can make a lot happen there. Maybe it ends up
being Max instead of Gabe or something like that. Max,
by the way, had a couple of really nice games
(29:29):
over the weekend as he kind of got an opportunity
with Cam Reddish being out and he capitalized in a
big way. I'm still deeply concerned about the Lakers athleticism
in the big picture, and that will always be something
that prevents me from considering them one of the top
tier contenders. But the offense is real and it's going
to keep getting better as they continue to build out
that continuity and find ways to kind of piece together
(29:50):
lineups that complement each other really well. And I still
do think that if they hit on the right trade
in terms of bringing in athleticism and a vandal can
get healthy, they do have that upside. It's just kind
of like a sliver of an upside because there's a
lot of personnel upgrades that they need. Number five Houston
Rockets a five game winning streak up to ten and
four and third in the Western Conference. Most of it
(30:12):
is their perimeter athleticism. You guys have probably heard me
on my soapbox about this all season, and I'm about
to get even more aggressive with it because I have
a rant involving speed and transition when we get to
the Golden State Warriors here in a little bit. But
that's Houston's formula. They're just super athletic on the perimeter.
Jalen Green is lightning fast. Javari Smith and Dylan Brooks
(30:33):
are two good athletes who defend super well on the perimeter.
Fred van Vliet's not a great athlete, but he's a
good defender. And then the bench is loaded with athletes
like Aman Thompson is an A plus athlete, Tari E's
and great athlete, Read Shepherd, great athlete, Cam Whitmore, great athlete.
They've just waves and waves and waves of athleticism, and
I mean Cam's hurt right now, Like they're gonna get
They're gonna They're just a super super athletic team and
(30:56):
they're super fascinating. They're third in defensive rating, they're first
in rebounding, they're second in offensive rebounding. They're constantly winning
that corner crash battle, like one of the big battles
that you see in the modern NBA is like shot
goes up, dudes crash out of the corners, and the
guys that are guarding the guys out of the corners
are also kind of like cracking down to get defensive rebounds,
and it's who's gonna win that race to the ball,
(31:18):
right It's a huge it's a huge.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Part of that battle.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
And they're winning that battle consistently as they as they
get a ton of offensive rebounds, they're allowing the third
fewest three point attempts per one hundred possessions in the league.
They're allowing the eighth best three point percentage, and a
lot of people will think that's luck. All the analytics
nerds think that's luck. I disagree. They're just closing out
better than everybody. They're allowing just sixteen point nine sixteen
(31:43):
point nine wide open threes per game, meaning the defenders
at least six feet away. That's the third fewest in
the entire NBA. They're forcing you to take contested threes,
and then they're forcing a lot of turnovers with their
athleticism and getting out in transition. They have the fourth
most points off of two e andovers per game in
the NBA. But like, that's the thing that's all like
(32:05):
a concept that I've been hammering home all season, Like,
if you can guard the ball, if you can have
Dylan Brooks pressure, pick up full court, Jabari Smith length
on big scoring wings, when you have guys that can
guard the ball and pressure the ball and get guys
out of their comfort zone when they're trying to get
into their sets, and then when you get in rotation,
if you have the speed to cover ground, and then
(32:25):
in transition, if you have the speed to cover ground,
you have a really really high floor. In the modern NBA,
you just have to have the appropriate amount of athleticism
to make that happen. But the surprising thing for Houston, though,
has been their offense. Like I knew Houston would be
a great defensive team to start the year. I said
that before the season in our season preview with them.
It's not exactly a brave prediction. They just have lots
(32:46):
of good defensive players. I'm not worried about Houston's ability
to guard. I just didn't think they'd be able to
score this well. I didn't think they'd be able to
score the ball well enough for it to manner, and
they have. They're like it's they're eleventh in offense of
rating overall. There's several factors at play. It's a lot
of transition. Like they're twenty second and half court offense
according to Cleaning the Glass, but they're the eighth best
(33:08):
transition offense per Cleaning the Glasses transition metric, which is
points added per one hundred possessions. They're the eighth best
transition offense in the league. They're also generating twenty four
points per game overall in transition according to Synergy, which
I think was ninth in the NBA. But they're still
getting timely half court production from several guys. Fred van
Vliet and Alprin Schangun have really nice two man game chemistry.
(33:30):
They had a sequence against the Bowls last night where
they were scoring so consistently with fred just coming off
and hitting a pull up jump shots or hitting Shanggun
in the pocket for like driving dunks or driving plays
that they started having to load up. And then fred
Vich just started spraying out to shooters on the weak side.
They were getting great looks. Shane Gun was off to
a slow start in the post to start the season,
(33:53):
but he was like flat out just frying Nikola Usevich
last night, just like torching him one on one in
the posts. So they're starting to get that going a
little bit. Jalen Green has increased his three point volume.
Now he's cooled off a little bit of as of late,
but he hit several huge threes to start the year.
And then Jabari Smith and Dylan Brooks both you know,
they're inconsistent, but they both bring some valuable like just
(34:14):
little bits of offense, like a good close out attack here,
like oh Jabari Smith catches on the left wing and
rips left and then spins into a left shoulder fade
and knocks it down, or like Dylan Brooks, So we're gonna, uh,
he's got a small guy on him, Let's just throw
it to him on the block real quick and like
he's big and strong. It can make a quick post
move and go get a bucket. And they're like getting
a little bit of stuff there. They're eleventh in offense.
(34:35):
That's gonna win you a lot of games when your
defense is this good. And it's gonna get a little tougher.
But if they if they beat Milwaukee tonight, then they
have Indiana at home, and I think they're gonna beat Indiana.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Then they have.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Portland at home twice, so like after that, the schedule
gets tough. But we could be looking at a fourteen
and four Rockets team if they get that win in
Milwaukee tonight. Number four the Boston Celtics. They dropped an
(35:14):
nd season tournament game on Tuesday to Atlanta, where they
looked incredibly sloppy throughout. They got burned on like a
tap tapman offensive rebound. They've been barely scraped out an
overtime win against Toronto the other night where Jason Tatum,
it was this crazy play where like Jalen Brown's coming
off an off ball action and just gets just so
clearly and blatantly foult that he just gets knocked over,
(35:36):
but no call, and so Tatum had no choice but
to try to make something out of nothing, and this
split second and he just went to his little kind
of step back three, like pull back three, and he
knocked it down. Got the wins as Tatum continues to
shoot the ball super well to start this year. But
I'm not worried about the Celtics at all, even though
they're playing some sloppy basketball, because this team is just
a victim of their schedule. Like last year, it was different,
(35:58):
they had like a much tougher schedule to start the
year and things kind of eased up later. This year,
they've had a super easy schedule to start the year
and things will get tougher later. And so like the
nixt game on opening Night was their only win this
season against a team that is five hundred or better.
Their opponent win percentage so far is forty five point one.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Percent.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
That's the second lowest in the entire league. Only the
Atlanta Hawks have played an easier schedule. So like, I
don't care that the Celtics are playing a little sloppy.
It's really hard to play your best basketball against that
level of competition. I've seen a lot of Celtics fans
that are like worried about their defense and wondering if
they don't have the edge that they did last year.
I'm not worried about them at all. They're going to
(36:34):
be there when the time comes. This is you already
have the trophy, You already know you can rise to
the level that you need to rise to when the
time comes. And you're like routinely playing some of the
lower tier teams in this NBA. So like, I think
they're just kind of caught in that monotony right now.
They have Cleveland tomorrow night, that's a big game, and
then in their next ten they actually have Cleveland twice
(36:56):
in their next ten games. Then they have Minnesota, they
have Miami in that run. They have no walk key
in that run. Even some of these Western Conference teams
that are injured guys like the Clippers without Kohi or
the Grizzlies without John Moran. Those teams are tougher than
a lot of these Eastern Conference teams that they're playing,
and they have those in their next ten games. So
I think we're going to see Boston really engage themselves
(37:16):
over the course of the next three weeks or so,
and I think we're going to see some of that
championship level basketball that we've been expecting them to show.
And here's the thing, They're They're still right where they
need to be in the standings. There's no issue there.
As far as the Cavs game tomorrow night, follow me
on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. I'm going to be
going on Watch Playback with my friend Mike to break
that game down live as it's going on, and then
(37:38):
we're also going to do a Hoops Tonight live show
after so calvs. Celtics' biggest game of the early stretch
here in the regular season. Super super excited to cover it,
watch it live with me on Watch Playback, and then
I'll also have an instant reaction live on YouTube after
the final buzzer of that game. That would be a
big one for me if the Celtics could just go
(38:00):
in there and send a big message. That would be
a big one for me. That would be a quick
reminder that all these, you know, kind of early season
games don't really mean that much. Number three the Oklahoma
City Thunder. They won their first three games without Chet
when they had to play small ball. They've been giving
up an offensive rebound on over forty percent of their
opponent's misses over this span, so like some of that
is to be expected with the lineups, but it hasn't mattered.
(38:21):
The Pelicans had a twenty one to five offensive rebound
advantage in one of the games, and the Thunder still
won by eighteen. They're kind of like leaning into their speed,
which I think is really smart, and they're basically going
marktagital is basically going with this process, which is like
we're going to get blitzed on the glass, but what
if we just force a million turnovers and completely dominate
the game and transition and then maybe it won't matter.
(38:43):
Like the Pels game is a perfect example, Like they
forced twenty four turnovers and converted them into twenty nine
points and they won the fast break point battle with
the Pelicans thirty four to two. Like that's margin in
this four game span since Chet went down. They are
first in points off of turnovers with twenty four game
while also giving up the fewest points off of turnovers
(39:05):
eleven per game. So they're creating thirteen points of margin
just right there. They're getting eighteen fast break points per game.
They're only allowing five point five fast break points per game,
which is the best in the league over that four
game span. That's another twelve point five points of margins.
So they're they're generating significance amounts, significant amounts of margin
(39:27):
just by winning the turnover battle and the transition battle,
and that undoes any damage that happens to them on
the offensive glass and then some now Dallas finally got
them last night. A huge win for Dallas by the way,
Like PJ. Washington had the best game of his career
statistically at a twenty seven and seventeen, a bunch of
really impressive shot making. Like it just was like it's like, oh,
you got a couple of stops. Well, here comes Jaden
(39:48):
Hardy hitting another like tough Alan Iverson esque fade away
in the lane, or like oh, here's Spencer Dinwoodie who's
like kind of sneaky, always been really good at creating
his own shot, just like hitting a step back three
on the right wing, right when you're made a run
to kind of like Spencer had, like a hit two
back to back threes to like turn a five point
game and do eleven point game, like change the complexion
of the game like that, a bunch of guys hit
(40:09):
some big shots, and like there's a lot of people
that are like, oh, you know, Luca's out, They're finally
getting a win. It's like I look at that. It's
just like it's an optimistic it's an optimistic thing because
Luca clearly didn't look right physically, and so you got
to win while allowing Luca to get some rest for
his bulkines. So, like huge win for Dallas, by the way,
But Dallas finally got Oklahoma City and showed some of
(40:29):
the limitations of that build, right, because like Dallas pummeled
Oklahoma City on the offensive glass, but they also held
Oklahoma City to only six fast break points and Dallas
only committed sixteen turnovers, which is not low, but it's
low for Oklahoma City, right, So, like they were able
to control Oklahoma City's margins while also dominating their margins,
and they got a big win. And so that's why,
(40:50):
like when I always talk about the difference between like
the expression styles make fights, it's.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Like which style is gonna win the fight.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
If a big guy and a small guy get in
a fight, one of two things is gonna happen. The
big guys either gonna maul him with the size or
the small guy's gonna beat him with his quickness. Like
either can happen. A lot of times we see that
and we go like, oh, mismatch, and it's like it's
a mismatch both ways.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
And so it's really just about how well you play.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
You have to in that battle against Dallas, Oklahoma City
was not able to weaponize their speed as much as
Dallas was able to weaponize their size, and they were
able to get a win. And then obviously, like in
a game like that, when you're giving up that much size,
you have to win the shot making battle, and Dallas
just kind of kept him toe to toe on the
shot making battle, and that made it so that their
(41:33):
physical limitations ended up getting them beat. But shout out
to Shaye and Jdubb Over the course of this four
game stretch, they're averaging sixty points per game. And combining
to be well over fifty to forty ninety splits between
the two of them, just cooking teams with the amount
of space that they're creating. Number two the Golden State
Warriors light schedule week for them, only two games, and
they won them both. They beat Dallas in a game
(41:54):
that we covered live on YouTube. That was the game
where every single time their offense bogged down, Dallas went
on a run, but then went on these like crazy
superstar runs at various points to regain control of the game,
and they end up stealing a game when they were
down by seven with I think what four minutes left.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Big win there.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Then they ended up getting a big win against the
Grizzlies at home. I think that was Desmond Bain's return
as well. But I wanted to since they only had
two games last week, I wanted to kind of use
this as an opportunity to talk about some of the
stuff that I'm starting to learn more about this game.
I was talking with my friend Samis fondi Ari, who
covers the Warriors. I'm going to be doing a watch
play back with him at some point the next couple
(42:29):
of weeks, and then I'd like to have him on
this show too at some point so we can talk
some Warriors. But I was talking to him, just texting
with him last night about because he had sent out
a tweet and yesterday or two days ago talking about
how like speed and perimeter defense is like one of
the most like basically the market inefficiency in the NBA
right now, which is very similar to some of the
(42:50):
stuff that I've been saying. It's like a lot of
the smart basketball minds around the league that I listened
to have been picking up on this sort of thing too.
And you know, one of the things I did, I
just after him and I were texting, and I just
I just pulled up cleaning the glass and I was like,
you know what, I'm just gonna look at where all
these teams are in transition. And the reason why I
(43:11):
did that is because, like my I used to have
this worldview. Those of you guys who follow this show
over the last few years will know what I'm talking
about here. I have always like over indexed on half
court offense and half court defense. And the reason why
is I've always been like, well, things are gonna slow down.
You know, you're gonna get stuck in the half court.
How are you gonna do when you get stuck in
(43:32):
the half court. But as I'm watching these games, I'm like,
teams are hunting transition opportunities more than ever. They're a
huge chunk of the game is taking place in transition.
And then I was like, all the good teams are
transition teams. Like Cleveland took off by dominating in transition,
Golden State took off by swapping out two of their
(43:54):
slower rotation players with faster rotation players, and now they're
cooking teams in transition. Boston always been a good transition team.
Oklahoma City like their entire identity is like playing in transition.
So I'm like, this is super interesting. So let me
dig into this a little bit. And so I pulled
up the cleaning the glass stat which is like their
catch all transition stat is transition points added per one
(44:14):
hundred possessions. What stands out to you about these lists?
This is the top ten in offensive points added per
one hundred possessions in transition, Memphis, Boston, the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami, Cleveland, Washington, Phoenix, Houston,
Oklahoma City, Denver. Here's the top ten transition defenses. What
(44:36):
stands out to you. Golden State number one, OKC number two,
Charlotte three, Boston number four, New York Knicks number five,
Cleveland Cavaliers number six, Orlando Magic number seven, and then Toronto, Phoenix,
and Dallas. So the top teams in the league are
heavily represented in both lists. Boston, OKC, and Cleveland are
(44:58):
top ten in both. They have three of the four
best records in the league right now. Golden State is
ten and two. They're the best transition defense in the
league according to Cleaning Glass. Houston, Phoenix, Denver in Orlando
all have top ten records in the league and are
all represented it all represented on that list. So like
it's been super interesting. Is like again, like I this
(45:19):
this job has been super fascinating for me because again,
I came into this with a lot of basketball experience,
but on a different level. Right, Like, I was an
NBA fan and I was aspiring to do this for
a living, and so I was watching a lot of
NBA basketball, but I had a job, and so I
didn't have as much time to watch as much film
as I do now. And a lot of my exposure
(45:40):
to the game came at different levels, right And so
coming into this job now, and I like February first
will be three years since I started working at the Volume.
In three years, I've watched way, way, way more NBA
basketball than I ever watched before, obviously just because now
it's my job, it's what I do for a living,
and I've learned so much and it's been super fascinating
(46:02):
to watch my view of the game change as I've
been exposed to more and more NBA basketball, And I
think it's a combination of both. I think it's a
combination of that. And then the NBA is actually changing
quite a bit as the league becomes faster and over
indexes on certain traits.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
But like, one of the things that I think has
been super fascinating is I think my emphasis on half
court offense and defense is a little short sighted. I
think that the transition battle is now a real significant
part of this of this process to becoming an elite
NBA team, And like, as I look at it, and
I'm like, all of the really good teams are just
(46:38):
excellent in transition. I don't think that's a coincidence. Speed
is the pathway to handling modern basketball problems. You need
to generate more threes than you need athletes who can
pressure the rim to collapse the defense. You need to
guard the three point line better, well, then you need
athletes who can cover ground in rotation and throw good closeouts.
(47:01):
Sam had a thought when I was texting him yesterday
I thought was super interesting. He goes, He goes, having
a guy that can close out on the perimeter and
turn a forty percent three point shooter into a thirty
percent three point shooter is just as valuable as a
rim protector who can turn a sixty percent layup into
a fifty percent layup. And I thought that was a
super super interesting concept. And I like and to his point,
(47:26):
you can actually argue it's more valuable because a ten
percent dip in three point percentage is actually impactful more
in the scoreboard than a ten percent difference in layup percentage.
But he has a really interesting point there. When I
watched the Warriors, their closeouts are insane. They fly to
the three point line. There have been multiple plays from
(47:46):
guys like Gary Paynton and Draymond Green this year where
they have feet in the paint in help kickout pass
and they're sprinting out in blocking dudes at the three
point line. Your ability to cover ground in rotation and
chase guys off the three point line is a speed trait.
Do you need to generate easier offense in transition, then
you need athletes that can get up and down the floor.
(48:08):
Do you need to get back better in transition and
defend better in transition, then you need athletes who can
get back. If you need to win battles on the glass,
there's more long rebounds than ever. With all these jump shots,
you need athletes who can track them down. On those
that corner crash battle, it's dudes standing in the corner
with the guys that are helping off of them. Those
guys are winning and losing foot races to long rebounds
(48:30):
all game long. There are still teams that are winning
with skill over athleticism. The two in our power rankings
this week are Phoenix and the Lakers. Right, those are
two teams that they it's half court execution for Phoenix
mainly in the clutch, for the Lakers in the clutch too,
but throughout the entire game. They're not overly athletic or fast,
but they're just dominating teams with their overall amount of
(48:51):
offensive skill. Right, dominating is the wrong word either.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
The two. They're just they're good.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
They're able to be good without being super athletic their
offensive skill, but they are the exceptions if you look
at the other teams Cleveland super Athletic, Golden State super Athletic,
Boston super Athletic, Oklahoma City super Athletic, Houston super Athletic,
all of the top five records in the league are
super athletic on the perimeter. Denver part of their turnaround
(49:18):
this season before Jokic took some time off this last week,
Peyton Watson, Christian Brown, Russell Westbrook, Julian Strader, they've gone
more athletic this year and so they've been a top
ten transition offense. They're winning one of those margins right
Orlando super Athletic, Minnesota super Athletic, Memphis super Athletic, Sacramento
(49:40):
super Athletic. Ten of the top twelve teams in the league,
and all of the top five are super athletic on
the perimeter, and so like in a lot of ways,
Golden State's roster to me is the perfect example of
this trade because with Golden State, if you were ranking
players based on like overall talent level, they don't. We
have a lot of guys that people have ranked super
(50:02):
high in the league, and yet they've been one of
the best teams in the league this year because the
specific strengths of that roster line up with what you
actually need to thrive in the modern NBA, which is
spaced out and super transition based, and you need to
cover ground and the only way you're going to cover
(50:22):
ground with athletes. Say what you want about Golden State's roster.
They have a ton of athletes and that has come
to fruition in a big way for them this season.
Number one the Cleveland Cavaliers four and oh week, but
a really light schedule. They had two wins against a
Bulls team that's creating the balls. Are not two and
seven in their last nine after getting embarrassed by Houston
last night, they beat the Sixers without all three of
their stars, and then they beat the Hornets. So not
(50:44):
a whole lot to get into there. Donno Mitchell's red
hot Darius Garland is two. Those two are averaging fifty
six points per game since our last rankings. They also
have seven guys averaging double figures since our last rankings.
But Celtics game tomorrow. Remember, I'm going to be covering
that game on Watch Playbacks. Pay attention to my Twitter
feed if you want to watch me and Mike break
down that game live. I also will be doing an
(51:04):
instant reaction to that game on YouTube live after the
final buzzer. And then, don't forget last week on Wednesday,
we had Cardi Rodriguez from the Chase Down podcast on
and we did an hour of Calves breakdown in that video.
So if you haven't checked that one out yet, head
back and check that one out. All right, guys, that's
all I have for today. That's our Power rankings for
the week of Monday, November eighteenth. We'll be back tomorrow
(51:25):
morning with I want to do a TIMPs tape session
on some of the Laker offense stuff I've talked about,
and then I'm gonna hit a couple of games from
tonight's slate as well, and I'll add whatever clips from
those games to the TIMPs tape segment Tuesday night. Like
I talked about Watch Playback as well as Calves Celtics
Instant Reaction on YouTube Wednesday morning, I haven't decided what
I'm gonna do yet, but we'll do something that covers
(51:46):
around the league, and then back to our normal schedule
after that. Don't forget we have our mail Bag that
I'm recording on Thursday, so drop a question in the mailbag,
comment in the YouTube comments. All right, guys, that is
all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
I'll see you tomorrow. The volume
The Volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the Volume having fun day.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Everybody, Oh ball.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
If you guys at an incredible weekend, you got a
damp pack show for you. Today, we're doing our weekly
edition of Power Rankings. We're gonna hit on ten teams,
but I also have a couple of other teams that
we're gonna hit on. Kind of in the rankings, as
we talked about some of the games these guys play,
We're gonna be bouncing all around the league today. You
guys are the joke before we get started. Subscribe to
the Hoops Tonight YouTube channels you don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore JSNLT
(00:39):
so you guys don't miss show announcements. Somet't forget about
a podcast few wherever you get your podcast on our
Hoops Tonight, don't forget it's helpful if you leave a
rating and a review on that front. We also have
brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook
for Hoops Tonight where we're gonna be releasing more content
like reels and stuff like that over the course of
the season, So make sure you follow those and then
We're doing another mail bag that I'm recording on this
third and I'm going to be using the comments from
(01:02):
the shows on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, So make sure
you drop mail bag questions in these. We're gonna be
trying to hit on some of the teams that we
haven't hit on yet in those mail bags. So any
questions you guys have about anything around the league, make
sure you drop them in those mail bag questions and
we will get to them in the show that's going
to air on Friday. And then last minut at least
before we get started, I want to talk to you
(01:22):
guys about Game Time. I personally have used game Time
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I have had the best experience I've had with the
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(01:43):
to see the sites, you get to see celebrities that
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There's NFL is in full swing, college football, college basket ball,
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game time today? What time is it? Game time? All right,
let's talk some basketball. So let's before we get into
the power rankings. I did that one crazy stat I
wanted to show you guys as I was digging into
the gap between the East and the West to start
(03:05):
this year. So Oklahoma City has six wins against teams
that are five hundred or better. If you took the
top five teams in the Eastern Conference. Okay, so that's Cleveland, Boston, Orlando,
New York, and Detroit. Those are the five best records.
Shout out to the Detroit Pistons with the fifth best
record in the East right now. But with those five teams,
(03:27):
they have combined to win six games against teams that
are five hundred are better. Oklahoma City has six by themselves.
The four teams that I had ranked as the top
teams in the East to start the year, that's Boston,
New York, Milwaukee, and Philly. Those four teams are combined
one in seventeen against teams that are five hundred are
better to start the year, with the one win obviously
(03:48):
being Boston beating up the Knicks on opening nights. So like,
the East has always been a little weaker than the West,
but man, does it feel like a giant chasm to
start the season. It's been such a strange year on
that front. I do think things will level out, and
I do think several teams will play better. Injuries are
important context too. Obviously you've had injuries in Philly. You've
(04:08):
had you know, Pala Bonkaro's been out for a while,
There's Jimmy Butler's already missed time. There's a bunch of
guys that have missed time. So that's part of it,
and I do think things will even out. But it
is kind of crazy the gap between the East and
the West that we've seen to start this year. All right,
let's get started with our rankings. Number ten, the New
York Knicks. They were a Josh Hart foul, kind of
like a rear view contest on Kobe White away from
(04:30):
having a four to o week, but it was a foul.
Kobe White made all three free throws. Jalen Brunson's turned
around fade away over his left shoulder, rimmed out and
the Knicks had a three to one week Still impressive,
still starting to gain some ground. They keep ending up
in these super close games. The first Nets game was
crazy too, like the Knicks were up six with a
minute and forty three seconds left and the Nets scored
(04:50):
six consecutive points or seven consecutive points to get a
one point lead before Jalen Brunson hit that ISO three
on the left wing that ended up giving him the win.
Every one of their games kind of seems to be
following that path. Either they're falling down big and having
to scram back into games, or they have big leads
that they're blowing late and they end up in these
like one or two possession games, and those clutch situations
(05:10):
have been where they've struggled. They're just two and five
this season in games that have involved a clutch situation,
and they've been bad on both ends. The offensive rating
in the clutch is at ninety one to start this season,
mostly just missing shots there, Like Brunson is five for
fifteen in the clutch this year. That's gonna get better,
and he hit a big one against Brooklyn the other
night as you guys know as a team, they're two
(05:30):
for fourteen from three in the clutch, and there's some
good looks in there, like Jalen Brunson wide open catch
and shoot three is campaign wide open catch and shoot three,
McHale bridges wide up catching shoot three. There's open looks
in there that they're just missing. So like some of that,
I'm not as worried about when it comes to the
offensive end of the floor. They have too much talent.
(05:51):
They're third in offense overall for the season. I think
they're gonna be able to score at the end of game,
so that I'm looking at as more as a fluke.
They have a one thirty five defensive rate in the
clutch though, that's the part that I'm really struggling about
struggling with, and like on tape, they're really struggling to
guard the ball. Teams are just running down the floor
and driving right around them and getting to the rim
(06:11):
iod as soon move multiple times and crunch time against
the bulls, just getting the ball sometimes off of made
baskets and just slashing down the lane and getting layups.
Zach Lavine just getting to his spot easily against McHale
Bridges and knocking down easy jump shots over the top.
In the Nets game, it was everybody but like Cam
Johnson in crunch time, just driving to the rim and
getting layups, or just coming hard off of a screen
(06:33):
and getting down into the lane and wrecking having for them,
like this was a team that I thought would be
better guarding the ball. McHale, Bridges and og And and
Obi and Josh Hard are all guys that are kind
of in terms of their reputation, they're good defensive players,
but they're just not playing good defense. And so the
Knicks have really struggled to guard the ball all year.
It's a big part of why they've been bottom ten again.
(06:54):
If you want to be encouraged, this isn't like the Lakers.
The Lakers are going to struggle to guard the ball
until they make a roster move. You have the pieces,
guys just have to play better. And it's kind of
funny how this comes down to this sort of thing
where like a lot of times, we associate our belief
system about a team or what they're capable of on reputation,
and reputation doesn't mean anything in basketball. All that really
(07:15):
matters is how well are you playing right. Like, so
much about whether or not a team is playing well
comes down to like whether or not guys are playing well, right. Like, So,
you have a couple of key role players that aren't
playing well, and a couple of key defenders that aren't
defending as well as they typically do, and you're going
to underachieve. But if you get a couple of guys
that are playing above their pay grade and a couple
of guys that are in good rhythm and everybody's locked
(07:37):
in and doing their jobs, all of a sudden, you
go on a run and you can win a bunch
of games in a row, right, And so like that's
what's super fascinating about the talk about what a team
looks like on paper before the year, and then it
kind of starting to come to fruition, Like the Knicks
have a ton of talent, but in some specific ways
on the defensive end of the floor, they're not actually
really utilizing that talent the way that they're capable of.
And so that's the part that's weird. I'm watching these
(07:59):
cold those games and it's like I'm watching historically good
defenders just not do a good job on the ball
as they continue to get pick apart and some of
it some of it is the weak points. Yeah, like
they like Nikola Vusovich was going right at Karl Anthony
Towns in the Bulls game and was just given him
buckets down on the block, and some of that is
like vuc is a good post player and Kat's a
(08:20):
mediocre defensive player, So there's gonna be some you know,
advantage that you're giving up there. But again, I've watched
Karl Anthony Towns do a really good job on Nikola
Jokic before, so that kind of goes back to the
point you made earlier, where like a lot of it
just has to do with how well your guys are playing.
So like the answer here for the Knicks is on offense,
when they get in these close games, they need their
guys to hit shots that they're capable of hitting. And
(08:42):
on defense, they need their good defensive players that have
been good defensive players throughout their career to be good
defensive players. And then that should turn around a lot
of the issues that they've had to this point in
the season. And then again a lot of the concern
about rim protection and stuff like that, like we're going
to see a different look when Mitchell Robinson comes back,
or if they end up making a move for center
at some point in time.
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Like, I'm not.
Speaker 1 (09:02):
Really worried about him in the big picture, but there's
no doubt that to start this season they're just not
playing up to their potential. And I you know again,
I had them in the top four and here they
are after a little bit of a streak at three
to one, still have them at ten in the Power
rankings Number nine the Denver Nuggets. Not gonna spend too
much time here. They only had two games last week
at New Orleans and at Memphis. Jokic missed both games
(09:23):
for the birth of his child. Just a reminder of
how valuable Jokic is to this team. Like Jamal Murray
still looks like a shell of himself. These young players,
they're capable of winning within the context of Jokic when
he can like provide the structure for them to be
able to impact the game on offense. But like obviously,
when Yokic isn't out there, they're just raw young players
(09:43):
with some talent. Right Russell Westbrook has been good at
times this year, but he wasn't able to bring much
next week or last week. And they ended up going
zero in two. So the Nuggets through twelve games at
this point are thirty five point one points better per
one hundred possessions with Jokic on the floor versus off
the floor. So in a weird way, the two games
out next week just or last week just shined a
big flashlight on NICOLEA. Jokic and how valuable he is
(10:07):
to this particular team. Number eight, the Minnesota Timberwolves. It's
such a weird week. They dropped back to back games
in Portland, like literally on the road in Portland, back
to back. You lose the first one, you think they
bounce back and win the next night, they end up
losing again. Now again, Portland is feisty. I think they're
six and eight now, they've won three in a row.
Shadan Sharp is averaging twenty seven points a game in
(10:28):
this three game winning streak, and they're getting really high
quality center play out of Robert Williams and Donovan Klingen.
So like they kind of have the depth situation at center,
they probably are going to be a team that someone's
going to target for a center at some point before
the deadline. So Portland's a little feisty, but Minnesota drops
back to back games in Portland, then they go into
Sacramento and get a win, and then they end up
beating Phoenix with that crazy Julius Randall game winner the
(10:50):
other day. So, like, what's interesting is if you talk
to Minnesota fans, that's what they'll tell you is their
biggest issue this season. Their biggest issue this season is
their competitive edge. It's just not the same that it
was last year. That their willingness to just get dirty
on defense and physical and grind games down into the mud,
the chip on their shoulder, right, like, it's just not there,
(11:11):
and it's showing up, mostly with the fact that they
seem to get up for the good teams and then
play down to the competition against the bad teams, like
in that way. Last week was a perfect example of it. Right,
you drop two games against a team that we all
view as a lottery team in Portland, and then you
end up going to play two like legitimate Western Conference
playoff teams and you beat them both. Right on the season,
(11:35):
the Timberwolves are four and two against teams that are
five hundred or better, but they've lost four games to
teams that are below five hundred, So like there's definitely
a little bit of like a chip on their shoulder issue,
Like they just don't seem to be attacking the regular
season the way they did last year. Now, some of
this is the reality of the way these teams like
(11:55):
kind of like progress through their goals of trying to
get to, you know, winning achampionship, or at least in
their attempts to win a championship. What I mean by
that is like there's always like that first season where
you end up getting into the playoffs and it's like
a cool experience, right, And we've seen that with Minnesota
over the last or the two previous years, right with
(12:15):
their series against Memphis and then their series against Denver,
and then the next phase is like, wait, we're super
talented and we can kick everybody's butt in the regular season.
That was last year, right, Minnesota near the top of
the standings all year as they were just consistently good.
Their defense I believe was best in the league last year.
They just kicked everybody's butt all year long. But then
(12:38):
you end up going from there into usually a longer
playoff run.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
That's what last year was, right, the.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Longer playoff run you have a first round series against Phoenix,
you have a second round series against Denver that goes
seven games. You're in the Western Conference finals. Right now,
as you go into the following season, you're in this
weird position where now the guys understand how long of
a journey this is. They started playing super hard in
October last year and they got eliminated in late May,
(13:05):
and they played a long stretch of playoff games. They
ended up playing what that was sixteen playoff games, right,
And so what that does is that starts to creep
into their minds and now they're not going to attack
the regular season with the same level of ferocity naturally
that you would. The reason why they did last year
is because they've never gone on a long playoff run.
(13:26):
They've never had that feeling of what it's like to
have that type of season. Once you start to have
that type of season, you start to understand this is
actually a really, really long journey. And so now you're
in the phase where you have to self motivate. Now
you're in the phase where it's like, okay, yeah, you're right, Like,
we're not going to go just crazy balls to the
walls from October through April. But at the same time,
(13:48):
we have to establish habits because NBA history does tell
us that you don't win the title unless you attack
the regular season from start to finish. So again, it's
like I've seen this so many times with young teams.
It's kind of like Memphis a couple of years ago,
right where they just rack up a bunch of wins.
Oklahoma City. I'm really curious to watch them this year.
They had their first year last year where they kicked
(14:08):
everybody's button in the regular season, got a super high seed,
had a somewhat long playoff run. I'm curious to see
how they undergo the length of this eighty two game
regular season and whether or not they run into any
lolls where they struggle. They're young enough that I don't
think it'll matter as much, but this Minnesota team is
definitely dealing with a little bit of a motivational issue
in the regular season. And all I would say is like,
(14:31):
as long as you end up with a good enough seed,
it's okay to have your downs and your ups over
the course of the season. But NBA history tells us
if you crawl into the playoffs as somewhere in that
five to eight range, you're not getting anything done. NBA
history tells us it's the teams that attack the regular
season from start to finish and have fewer loles and
have more extended stretches of success. Those are the teams
(14:54):
that end up going on long playoff runs. And so
when it comes to Minnesota, I think, like I think
it's important to understand that this is just part of
the pathway that some of these teams take, but they
need to be careful. They're playing with a little bit
of fire with some of their lack of enthusiasm over
the course of the season. Now, one thing on a
positive note, they've proven extremely difficult to guard in the clutch.
(15:15):
This is a very big difference from last year where
Minnesota really really struggled to score, especially at the end
of games. They've been the fourth best clutch offense in
the league to start the season. And mostly it comes
down to the fact that they have two really difficult
athletes to deal with. Yesterday, Julius Randall just like a
hard dribble towards his right into his step back, He's
gonna get plenty of separation. Julius is a really big athlete.
(15:39):
He's gonna get good looks for himself in those situations,
and you kind of just have to hope he misses. Unfortunately,
he's been over his career a pretty streaky jump shooter,
so most teams feel like they can get away with that.
But he's been shooting the ball well this year, and
he hit that step back three and the Timberwolves gotta
win the Kings game. I was watching that one actually
watch that game live. Like Darren Fox has going for sixty.
(16:01):
He's like in the zone of all zones right now,
like just completely locked in.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
No one can keep him in front off the dribble.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
He's making all of his jump shots, and Ant just
kind of stays in the game, and then when we
get to late regulation, he just takes over and he
gets these two crazy slaloming drives in the lane through
all this traffic and gets a couple and ones. And
then he goes into overtime and he's hitting tough, contested
jump shots because he gets so much lyft that he
could just get to a jump shot whenever he wants.
(16:28):
He makes two huge kickout reads to Julius Randall and
Jaden McDaniels for catch and shoot threes. That end up
icing that game in overtime and you survive a sixty
piece from Deer and Fox. Like, they are scoring really
well in the clutch, because Anthony Edwards has gone up
a level in a real way to start this season,
and Julius Randall is another guy that can consistently create
(16:49):
his own shot, even at a higher level than Carl
Anthony towns A did for this team, and so like
they're just hard to guard in the clutch, and that's
a huge positive sign there. But they're definitely going to
have to get their defense back where it was last year.
They're definitely going to have to get back into that
level of effort and intensity on a more consistent level
throughout the regular season if they have any serious goals
(17:10):
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Speaker 2 (18:48):
Number seven. The Phoenix Suns.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
They are one in four in the five games since
Kevin Durant went down with his cap injury. They've been
bat on both ends of the floor, which is no surprise.
KD has been vitally important to them on both ends
of the floor. The Bial has missed the last three
games too, so teams have really been able to load
up on Devin Booker. The Olkgaama City game in particular,
they were just putting two on the ball every single
time he got screened.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Every ISO or post up.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
They're hard helping off the ball like he's just getting
the kitchen sing thrown at him. And the Suns have
had a lot of lineups with Bil and Durant out
where they've had multiple limited offensive players on the floor,
and as a result of that they've had some struggles.
I mean, use off Nurkic has been an absolute disaster.
He's just three for twenty three from the floor over
the course of the five games since KD went down.
(19:31):
The I've never seen a big man who's this bad
at making layups. He's thirteen for twenty seven on layups
this year. That's below fifty percent. But like, again, this
is something I talked about last year too. Last year
he was only fifty three percent on layups. It's the
craziest thing, Like he's this big human who's stronger than everybody,
but for some reason, like can't just make simple, easy.
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Touch shots around the basket.
Speaker 1 (19:54):
Now, if you're looking for a bright side, it's what
we saw from Devin Booker against Minnesota yesterday was by
far the best he's looked season. He had forty four points,
six rebounds, and seven assists. He came into that game
averaging just twenty two and a half points per game
on the season on just forty two percent from the
field and thirty four percent from three. He had hit
thirty points just three times in his first thirteen games.
So Booker getting back into the form would be huge
(20:16):
for them, and obviously last night against Minnesota was a
big step in that direction. Number six the Los Angeles Lakers.
They've won five games in a row, although it's been
against a very easy stretch of their schedule. The one
game that I thought was impressive in the five game
win streak was the win in San Antonio. That was
a game that I had marked as a loss. San
Antonio had been five and five and two at home
(20:36):
going into that game, and they'd beaten some good Western
Conference teams there, specifically Minnesota in Sacramento, and San Antonio
jumped to me early, they went up eleven zero, but
they just methodically got their way back into that game
and got a good win on the road. Their offense
just continues to be super impressive. Their fifth in offensive rating,
their sixth and a half court offense. They have just
an incredible combination of skill basketball IQ and organization from
(21:00):
the coaching staff on the offensive end, and it's just beautiful.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
I'm going to be doing.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
I was watching the Pells game the other night, and
first of all, shout out to Joel Myers and Antonio Daniels.
They I was like watching that game and there was
a really interesting kind of like chess match going on
in the second half as the Pells were dealing with
all the screening action that Dalton was getting to get
open and the Lakers consistently attacking switching by trying to
(21:25):
get Smalls onto Anthony Davis, and he was just doing
a ton of damage in the post and in in
offensive rebound situations, and then the Pelicans were like struggling
to get the ball to brandon Ingram in spots where
he could really do any work, and they were kind
of ignoring some of the Pelicans non shooters in that sequence.
It was like a really interesting kind of chess match.
And like, I've watched a lot of broadcasts from a
(21:46):
lot of groups around the league, and Joel Myers and
Antonio Daniels, both of them were just completely on top
of that chess match the entire game, calling out everything
that was happening, talking about the different things they needed
to do. I just really appreciated it, and I hope
that we get more broadcast duos like them over time
in the league because it just made watching that game
(22:06):
so much more enjoyable, and quite frankly, I think it
would just be really good for all the casual fans
around the league to understand some of the tactical battle
that takes place live, and it's really hard to do
when it's happening live compared to when you can watch
film and take your sweet time with it over hours.
Speaker 2 (22:22):
Right, So shout out to those guys.
Speaker 1 (22:24):
Anyway, I was watching the Pells game and the second
half was just an offensive masterclass. The Lakers played with
great pace, They got the ball at the floor quickly.
They did like a good combination of like some freelance
stuff in semi transition where guards would just throw screens
at Anthony Davis's man just to try to force quick
switches like early in the shot clock, at which point
they would just then try to post up or maybe
(22:46):
get a shot up on the rim where Anthony Davis
could get an offensive rebound. But they also did it
through sets as well, just like they were running sets
to try to get daln Connect open, and the Pelicans
were attacking that by switching, which was getting more opportunities
for Anthony Davis, Anthony Davis to attack mismatches all of
the guard guards screening that they were doing, and Antonio
(23:06):
Daniels was doing a really nice job calling out how
like the Pelicans kept botching guard guard screens, and like
we talked about this all the time, but like the
more action you run, the more opportunity there is for
the defense to make mistakes. And the Pelicans were just
making a lot of mistakes on like basic kind of
screening actions that they were running, and a bunch of
guys were getting open or getting switches that were favorable
for the Lakers. And then Austin and Di Loo, both
(23:27):
of them are so good at operating in five out
inside the three point line as like screeners slippers and
his connective passers. There was a play where like Austin
reeves kind of made himself available along the baseline, catches
right behind the backboard, but he knows what's happening around him,
and he knows that Dalton is open because Dalton's man
is rotating to Austin, He on the catch just blindly
(23:49):
turns and whips it to the left corner. Dalton catches
and shoots at three. There Again, that's connective passing. Austin's
the open guy even though he's not really in a
position to score, but Austin understands the next pass and
the chain and he's able to generate a wide open
look for Dalton.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
Connect right.
Speaker 1 (24:04):
Or there was a play where Anthony Davis gets double
teamed on the post in the post on the left
block and the Pels do a really nice job pressuring Ad,
and so they're pressuring Ad so hard that he's not
able to really turn and see the floor, and Sodlo
makes himself available up on the left wing and Ad
has no choice but to throw it back out to
d Lo. Now there's a split second after Dlo catches
(24:26):
it where you can make a kill pass, and if
you don't make the kill pass, and that split second,
New Orleans is going to rotate back out and the
advantage is gone. It's Dalton connects cutting right down the
lane and d Lo right on the catch. One times
it to Dalton and Dalton ends up getting a dunk
in the lane, and it's like, that's just those are
the ways that Austin and di Loo connect things with
(24:49):
their passing without necessarily having to run a ball screen
or drive a close out or do something in a
spot up situation. They're doing it screening, slipping, cutting in
the interior. You're part of the floor, and they're taking
advantage of double teams that other players are getting and
making the connective passes to get to the player that
can actually finish the play. They're kind of relentless with
(25:11):
their execution. They have so many smart players who know
how to play. When defenses make a mistake with the switch,
everyone on the floor will immediately recognize it and start
pointing to that guy. They're going to find a way
to get the ball to that guy. They stay organized,
they're freelancing less than ever, and they're killing teams in
the clutch. They have the third best clutch offense in
the league. Lebron James, Austin Reeves and Anthony Davis are
seventeen for twenty seven from the field in the clutch
(25:33):
this year. A lot of three man action. There was
a game that they closed just running stack over and
over again where it's like Lebron coming off of the
ball screen with Ad as Austin is backscreening the role
man as he goes, and there was sequences there where
Anthony Davis was popping and hitting threes out of stack.
Then against the Pelicans, they were like spamming like a
(25:53):
horn set where they would just throw the ball to
Lebron James on the left elbow with Austin Reeves at
the top of the key. AD's at the right elbow
and Austin would cut down and then as Austin was
going off of a pin in flare with Dalton connect
on the weak side in the right corner. Then Lebron
would come off of a ball screen with Ad And
because Austin and Dalton are running off ball action, and
(26:16):
if you've cut that off ball action, you have a
good shooter over there. Lebron is able to turn the
corner and get into the lane and make layups. And
so they were able to spam that action and get
a bunch of good stuff at it. They're relentless with
their execution. They have so many different ways that they
can attack. They have like everyone in their lineups is
like a legitimately very good offensive player. You know, Austin
(26:37):
is good two man game chemistry with both Lebron and
Anthony Davis. I'm loving Dalton Connect with the starters. I
think I was talking with my friend Pete, I think
does the best team specific podcast in the entire basketball world.
If you're a Laker fan and you're not listening to
Laker Film Room and the work that Pete and Darius do,
you're missing out. Those guys are literally the best at
(26:57):
what they do. So I highly recommend you guys check
that out if you haven't. But I was talking with
Pete about it yesterday because like, I want Dalton to start,
And this was Pete's original idea. He was on it
early in the season, like like a week or two
into the season. He was like, I think Dalton could
start for this team. It was kind of when Dilo
was struggling, and you know, there are some concerns about
whether or not he was ready for it. But my
thing is, like, I think Dalton's athletic, and like how
(27:18):
much am I going to be harping on athleticism today.
I've already done it a little bit earlier. I'm gonna
be doing it again here in a minute with Houston.
We're gonna do it again with Golden State later, Like
athleticism is huge, and like Lebron and ad are the
only two plus athletes in the starting lineup when you
have Ruey, Austin and Dlo out there, right, and so like,
Dalton is a very good athlete. He literally had a
poster dunk yesterday and or was it two days ago?
(27:40):
Two days ago he had a poster dunk. Two days
ago he had like a play on a curl where
he got downhill and got a dunk. Like he's athletic
the way I see it is. I want Austin, Dalton
van Do when he's healthy, than Lebron and Ad because
you can use van Do as the primary point of
attack defender and is more of a screening folkrum. And
then Austin, Lebron and Dalton become your ball handling folkrums
(28:03):
and Adan Vando become your screening folkrums. You've got tons
of athleticism in that lineup because Dalton good athlete, vand
O good athlete, Lebron good athlete, Ad good athlete. Austin
is now the least athletic player in the lineup. That
is something that I think works from an athleticism standpoint.
And I love Dalton with the starters because he's an
off ball scorer, which is key. Off ball scoring is
(28:25):
key when I feel like a guy's gonna give me
twenty twenty five a night, and I'm not actually like
putting the ball in his hands, I'm actually putting the
ball in Austin's hands or Lebron's hands while Dalton's running around.
I like that because that's really complimentary scoring. It's scoring
that doesn't yank on the rope and actually cause another
player to get out of rhythm. If that makes sense.
(28:46):
And then also it's so much high IQ in that lineup.
If you had Vandam, Austin, Vandal Lebron and Ad, that's
a lot of really smart defenders. And so with that
you could craft a really achievable defensive role for Dalton
that I think makes a lot of sense. And then
for a team that struggled with bench scoring, now you
have d Lo and Ruiy as guys that can come
in as bench scores and you can play them with
your athletes. Christian Koloco has been a really interesting kind
(29:08):
of defensive fit as a backup center. If you put
him out there with Gabe, you know, if you go
Gabe d Low and then you go like Cam Ruy Christian,
You've got two really high level offensive players around guys
that are pretty solid defensive players, right, and then you
can make a lot happen there. Maybe it ends up
being Max instead of Gabe or something like that. Max,
by the way, had a couple of really nice games
(29:29):
over the weekend as he kind of got an opportunity
with Cam Reddish being out and he capitalized in a
big way. I'm still deeply concerned about the Lakers athleticism
in the big picture, and that will always be something
that prevents me from considering them one of the top
tier contenders. But the offense is real and it's going
to keep getting better as they continue to build out
that continuity and find ways to kind of piece together
(29:50):
lineups that complement each other really well. And I still
do think that if they hit on the right trade
in terms of bringing in athleticism and a vandal can
get healthy, they do have that upside. It's just kind
of like a sliver of an upside because there's a
lot of personnel upgrades that they need. Number five Houston
Rockets a five game winning streak up to ten and
four and third in the Western Conference. Most of it
(30:12):
is their perimeter athleticism. You guys have probably heard me
on my soapbox about this all season, and I'm about
to get even more aggressive with it because I have
a rant involving speed and transition when we get to
the Golden State Warriors here in a little bit. But
that's Houston's formula. They're just super athletic on the perimeter.
Jalen Green is lightning fast. Javari Smith and Dylan Brooks
(30:33):
are two good athletes who defend super well on the perimeter.
Fred van Vliet's not a great athlete, but he's a
good defender. And then the bench is loaded with athletes
like Aman Thompson is an A plus athlete, Tari E's
and great athlete, Read Shepherd, great athlete, Cam Whitmore, great athlete.
They've just waves and waves and waves of athleticism, and
I mean Cam's hurt right now, Like they're gonna get
They're gonna They're just a super super athletic team and
(30:56):
they're super fascinating. They're third in defensive rating, they're first
in rebounding, they're second in offensive rebounding. They're constantly winning
that corner crash battle, like one of the big battles
that you see in the modern NBA is like shot
goes up, dudes crash out of the corners, and the
guys that are guarding the guys out of the corners
are also kind of like cracking down to get defensive rebounds,
and it's who's gonna win that race to the ball,
(31:18):
right It's a huge it's a huge.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Part of that battle.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
And they're winning that battle consistently as they as they
get a ton of offensive rebounds, they're allowing the third
fewest three point attempts per one hundred possessions in the league.
They're allowing the eighth best three point percentage, and a
lot of people will think that's luck. All the analytics
nerds think that's luck. I disagree. They're just closing out
better than everybody. They're allowing just sixteen point nine sixteen
(31:43):
point nine wide open threes per game, meaning the defenders
at least six feet away. That's the third fewest in
the entire NBA. They're forcing you to take contested threes,
and then they're forcing a lot of turnovers with their
athleticism and getting out in transition. They have the fourth
most points off of two e andovers per game in
the NBA. But like, that's the thing that's all like
(32:05):
a concept that I've been hammering home all season, Like,
if you can guard the ball, if you can have
Dylan Brooks pressure, pick up full court, Jabari Smith length
on big scoring wings, when you have guys that can
guard the ball and pressure the ball and get guys
out of their comfort zone when they're trying to get
into their sets, and then when you get in rotation,
if you have the speed to cover ground, and then
(32:25):
in transition, if you have the speed to cover ground,
you have a really really high floor. In the modern NBA,
you just have to have the appropriate amount of athleticism
to make that happen. But the surprising thing for Houston, though,
has been their offense. Like I knew Houston would be
a great defensive team to start the year. I said
that before the season in our season preview with them.
It's not exactly a brave prediction. They just have lots
(32:46):
of good defensive players. I'm not worried about Houston's ability
to guard. I just didn't think they'd be able to
score this well. I didn't think they'd be able to
score the ball well enough for it to manner, and
they have. They're like it's they're eleventh in offense of
rating overall. There's several factors at play. It's a lot
of transition. Like they're twenty second and half court offense
according to Cleaning the Glass, but they're the eighth best
(33:08):
transition offense per Cleaning the Glasses transition metric, which is
points added per one hundred possessions. They're the eighth best
transition offense in the league. They're also generating twenty four
points per game overall in transition according to Synergy, which
I think was ninth in the NBA. But they're still
getting timely half court production from several guys. Fred van
Vliet and Alprin Schangun have really nice two man game chemistry.
(33:30):
They had a sequence against the Bowls last night where
they were scoring so consistently with fred just coming off
and hitting a pull up jump shots or hitting Shanggun
in the pocket for like driving dunks or driving plays
that they started having to load up. And then fred
Vich just started spraying out to shooters on the weak side.
They were getting great looks. Shane Gun was off to
a slow start in the post to start the season,
(33:53):
but he was like flat out just frying Nikola Usevich
last night, just like torching him one on one in
the posts. So they're starting to get that going a
little bit. Jalen Green has increased his three point volume.
Now he's cooled off a little bit of as of late,
but he hit several huge threes to start the year.
And then Jabari Smith and Dylan Brooks both you know,
they're inconsistent, but they both bring some valuable like just
(34:14):
little bits of offense, like a good close out attack here,
like oh Jabari Smith catches on the left wing and
rips left and then spins into a left shoulder fade
and knocks it down, or like Dylan Brooks, So we're gonna, uh,
he's got a small guy on him, Let's just throw
it to him on the block real quick and like
he's big and strong. It can make a quick post
move and go get a bucket. And they're like getting
a little bit of stuff there. They're eleventh in offense.
(34:35):
That's gonna win you a lot of games when your
defense is this good. And it's gonna get a little tougher.
But if they if they beat Milwaukee tonight, then they
have Indiana at home, and I think they're gonna beat Indiana.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
Then they have.
Speaker 1 (34:48):
Portland at home twice, so like after that, the schedule
gets tough. But we could be looking at a fourteen
and four Rockets team if they get that win in
Milwaukee tonight. Number four the Boston Celtics. They dropped an
(35:14):
nd season tournament game on Tuesday to Atlanta, where they
looked incredibly sloppy throughout. They got burned on like a
tap tapman offensive rebound. They've been barely scraped out an
overtime win against Toronto the other night where Jason Tatum,
it was this crazy play where like Jalen Brown's coming
off an off ball action and just gets just so
clearly and blatantly foult that he just gets knocked over,
(35:36):
but no call, and so Tatum had no choice but
to try to make something out of nothing, and this
split second and he just went to his little kind
of step back three, like pull back three, and he
knocked it down. Got the wins as Tatum continues to
shoot the ball super well to start this year. But
I'm not worried about the Celtics at all, even though
they're playing some sloppy basketball, because this team is just
a victim of their schedule. Like last year, it was different,
(35:58):
they had like a much tougher schedule to start the
year and things kind of eased up later. This year,
they've had a super easy schedule to start the year
and things will get tougher later. And so like the
nixt game on opening Night was their only win this
season against a team that is five hundred or better.
Their opponent win percentage so far is forty five point one.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
Percent.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
That's the second lowest in the entire league. Only the
Atlanta Hawks have played an easier schedule. So like, I
don't care that the Celtics are playing a little sloppy.
It's really hard to play your best basketball against that
level of competition. I've seen a lot of Celtics fans
that are like worried about their defense and wondering if
they don't have the edge that they did last year.
I'm not worried about them at all. They're going to
(36:34):
be there when the time comes. This is you already
have the trophy, You already know you can rise to
the level that you need to rise to when the
time comes. And you're like routinely playing some of the
lower tier teams in this NBA. So like, I think
they're just kind of caught in that monotony right now.
They have Cleveland tomorrow night, that's a big game, and
then in their next ten they actually have Cleveland twice
(36:56):
in their next ten games. Then they have Minnesota, they
have Miami in that run. They have no walk key
in that run. Even some of these Western Conference teams
that are injured guys like the Clippers without Kohi or
the Grizzlies without John Moran. Those teams are tougher than
a lot of these Eastern Conference teams that they're playing,
and they have those in their next ten games. So
I think we're going to see Boston really engage themselves
(37:16):
over the course of the next three weeks or so,
and I think we're going to see some of that
championship level basketball that we've been expecting them to show.
And here's the thing, They're They're still right where they
need to be in the standings. There's no issue there.
As far as the Cavs game tomorrow night, follow me
on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt. I'm going to be
going on Watch Playback with my friend Mike to break
that game down live as it's going on, and then
(37:38):
we're also going to do a Hoops Tonight live show
after so calvs. Celtics' biggest game of the early stretch
here in the regular season. Super super excited to cover it,
watch it live with me on Watch Playback, and then
I'll also have an instant reaction live on YouTube after
the final buzzer of that game. That would be a
big one for me if the Celtics could just go
(38:00):
in there and send a big message. That would be
a big one for me. That would be a quick
reminder that all these, you know, kind of early season
games don't really mean that much. Number three the Oklahoma
City Thunder. They won their first three games without Chet
when they had to play small ball. They've been giving
up an offensive rebound on over forty percent of their
opponent's misses over this span, so like some of that
is to be expected with the lineups, but it hasn't mattered.
(38:21):
The Pelicans had a twenty one to five offensive rebound
advantage in one of the games, and the Thunder still
won by eighteen. They're kind of like leaning into their speed,
which I think is really smart, and they're basically going
marktagital is basically going with this process, which is like
we're going to get blitzed on the glass, but what
if we just force a million turnovers and completely dominate
the game and transition and then maybe it won't matter.
(38:43):
Like the Pels game is a perfect example, Like they
forced twenty four turnovers and converted them into twenty nine
points and they won the fast break point battle with
the Pelicans thirty four to two. Like that's margin in
this four game span since Chet went down. They are
first in points off of turnovers with twenty four game
while also giving up the fewest points off of turnovers
(39:05):
eleven per game. So they're creating thirteen points of margin
just right there. They're getting eighteen fast break points per game.
They're only allowing five point five fast break points per game,
which is the best in the league over that four
game span. That's another twelve point five points of margins.
So they're they're generating significance amounts, significant amounts of margin
(39:27):
just by winning the turnover battle and the transition battle,
and that undoes any damage that happens to them on
the offensive glass and then some now Dallas finally got
them last night. A huge win for Dallas by the way,
Like PJ. Washington had the best game of his career
statistically at a twenty seven and seventeen, a bunch of
really impressive shot making. Like it just was like it's like, oh,
you got a couple of stops. Well, here comes Jaden
(39:48):
Hardy hitting another like tough Alan Iverson esque fade away
in the lane, or like oh, here's Spencer Dinwoodie who's
like kind of sneaky, always been really good at creating
his own shot, just like hitting a step back three
on the right wing, right when you're made a run
to kind of like Spencer had, like a hit two
back to back threes to like turn a five point
game and do eleven point game, like change the complexion
of the game like that, a bunch of guys hit
(40:09):
some big shots, and like there's a lot of people
that are like, oh, you know, Luca's out, They're finally
getting a win. It's like I look at that. It's
just like it's an optimistic it's an optimistic thing because
Luca clearly didn't look right physically, and so you got
to win while allowing Luca to get some rest for
his bulkines. So, like huge win for Dallas, by the way,
But Dallas finally got Oklahoma City and showed some of
(40:29):
the limitations of that build, right, because like Dallas pummeled
Oklahoma City on the offensive glass, but they also held
Oklahoma City to only six fast break points and Dallas
only committed sixteen turnovers, which is not low, but it's
low for Oklahoma City, right, So, like they were able
to control Oklahoma City's margins while also dominating their margins,
and they got a big win. And so that's why,
(40:50):
like when I always talk about the difference between like
the expression styles make fights, it's.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
Like which style is gonna win the fight.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
If a big guy and a small guy get in
a fight, one of two things is gonna happen. The
big guys either gonna maul him with the size or
the small guy's gonna beat him with his quickness. Like
either can happen. A lot of times we see that
and we go like, oh, mismatch, and it's like it's
a mismatch both ways.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
And so it's really just about how well you play.
Speaker 1 (41:12):
You have to in that battle against Dallas, Oklahoma City
was not able to weaponize their speed as much as
Dallas was able to weaponize their size, and they were
able to get a win. And then obviously, like in
a game like that, when you're giving up that much size,
you have to win the shot making battle, and Dallas
just kind of kept him toe to toe on the
shot making battle, and that made it so that their
(41:33):
physical limitations ended up getting them beat. But shout out
to Shaye and Jdubb Over the course of this four
game stretch, they're averaging sixty points per game. And combining
to be well over fifty to forty ninety splits between
the two of them, just cooking teams with the amount
of space that they're creating. Number two the Golden State
Warriors light schedule week for them, only two games, and
they won them both. They beat Dallas in a game
(41:54):
that we covered live on YouTube. That was the game
where every single time their offense bogged down, Dallas went
on a run, but then went on these like crazy
superstar runs at various points to regain control of the game,
and they end up stealing a game when they were
down by seven with I think what four minutes left.
Speaker 2 (42:08):
Big win there.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Then they ended up getting a big win against the
Grizzlies at home. I think that was Desmond Bain's return
as well. But I wanted to since they only had
two games last week, I wanted to kind of use
this as an opportunity to talk about some of the
stuff that I'm starting to learn more about this game.
I was talking with my friend Samis fondi Ari, who
covers the Warriors. I'm going to be doing a watch
play back with him at some point the next couple
(42:29):
of weeks, and then I'd like to have him on
this show too at some point so we can talk
some Warriors. But I was talking to him, just texting
with him last night about because he had sent out
a tweet and yesterday or two days ago talking about
how like speed and perimeter defense is like one of
the most like basically the market inefficiency in the NBA
right now, which is very similar to some of the
(42:50):
stuff that I've been saying. It's like a lot of
the smart basketball minds around the league that I listened
to have been picking up on this sort of thing too.
And you know, one of the things I did, I
just after him and I were texting, and I just
I just pulled up cleaning the glass and I was like,
you know what, I'm just gonna look at where all
these teams are in transition. And the reason why I
(43:11):
did that is because, like my I used to have
this worldview. Those of you guys who follow this show
over the last few years will know what I'm talking
about here. I have always like over indexed on half
court offense and half court defense. And the reason why
is I've always been like, well, things are gonna slow down.
You know, you're gonna get stuck in the half court.
How are you gonna do when you get stuck in
(43:32):
the half court. But as I'm watching these games, I'm like,
teams are hunting transition opportunities more than ever. They're a
huge chunk of the game is taking place in transition.
And then I was like, all the good teams are
transition teams. Like Cleveland took off by dominating in transition,
Golden State took off by swapping out two of their
(43:54):
slower rotation players with faster rotation players, and now they're
cooking teams in transition. Boston always been a good transition team.
Oklahoma City like their entire identity is like playing in transition.
So I'm like, this is super interesting. So let me
dig into this a little bit. And so I pulled
up the cleaning the glass stat which is like their
catch all transition stat is transition points added per one
(44:14):
hundred possessions. What stands out to you about these lists?
This is the top ten in offensive points added per
one hundred possessions in transition, Memphis, Boston, the Los Angeles Clippers, Miami, Cleveland, Washington, Phoenix, Houston,
Oklahoma City, Denver. Here's the top ten transition defenses. What
(44:36):
stands out to you. Golden State number one, OKC number two,
Charlotte three, Boston number four, New York Knicks number five,
Cleveland Cavaliers number six, Orlando Magic number seven, and then Toronto, Phoenix,
and Dallas. So the top teams in the league are
heavily represented in both lists. Boston, OKC, and Cleveland are
(44:58):
top ten in both. They have three of the four
best records in the league right now. Golden State is
ten and two. They're the best transition defense in the
league according to Cleaning Glass. Houston, Phoenix, Denver in Orlando
all have top ten records in the league and are
all represented it all represented on that list. So like
it's been super interesting. Is like again, like I this
(45:19):
this job has been super fascinating for me because again,
I came into this with a lot of basketball experience,
but on a different level. Right, Like, I was an
NBA fan and I was aspiring to do this for
a living, and so I was watching a lot of
NBA basketball, but I had a job, and so I
didn't have as much time to watch as much film
as I do now. And a lot of my exposure
(45:40):
to the game came at different levels, right And so
coming into this job now, and I like February first
will be three years since I started working at the Volume.
In three years, I've watched way, way, way more NBA
basketball than I ever watched before, obviously just because now
it's my job, it's what I do for a living,
and I've learned so much and it's been super fascinating
(46:02):
to watch my view of the game change as I've
been exposed to more and more NBA basketball, And I
think it's a combination of both. I think it's a
combination of that. And then the NBA is actually changing
quite a bit as the league becomes faster and over
indexes on certain traits.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
Right.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
But like, one of the things that I think has
been super fascinating is I think my emphasis on half
court offense and defense is a little short sighted. I
think that the transition battle is now a real significant
part of this of this process to becoming an elite
NBA team, And like, as I look at it, and
I'm like, all of the really good teams are just
(46:38):
excellent in transition. I don't think that's a coincidence. Speed
is the pathway to handling modern basketball problems. You need
to generate more threes than you need athletes who can
pressure the rim to collapse the defense. You need to
guard the three point line better, well, then you need
athletes who can cover ground in rotation and throw good closeouts.
(47:01):
Sam had a thought when I was texting him yesterday
I thought was super interesting. He goes, He goes, having
a guy that can close out on the perimeter and
turn a forty percent three point shooter into a thirty
percent three point shooter is just as valuable as a
rim protector who can turn a sixty percent layup into
a fifty percent layup. And I thought that was a
super super interesting concept. And I like and to his point,
(47:26):
you can actually argue it's more valuable because a ten
percent dip in three point percentage is actually impactful more
in the scoreboard than a ten percent difference in layup percentage.
But he has a really interesting point there. When I
watched the Warriors, their closeouts are insane. They fly to
the three point line. There have been multiple plays from
(47:46):
guys like Gary Paynton and Draymond Green this year where
they have feet in the paint in help kickout pass
and they're sprinting out in blocking dudes at the three
point line. Your ability to cover ground in rotation and
chase guys off the three point line is a speed trait.
Do you need to generate easier offense in transition, then
you need athletes that can get up and down the floor.
(48:08):
Do you need to get back better in transition and
defend better in transition, then you need athletes who can
get back. If you need to win battles on the glass,
there's more long rebounds than ever. With all these jump shots,
you need athletes who can track them down. On those
that corner crash battle, it's dudes standing in the corner
with the guys that are helping off of them. Those
guys are winning and losing foot races to long rebounds
(48:30):
all game long. There are still teams that are winning
with skill over athleticism. The two in our power rankings
this week are Phoenix and the Lakers. Right, those are
two teams that they it's half court execution for Phoenix
mainly in the clutch, for the Lakers in the clutch too,
but throughout the entire game. They're not overly athletic or fast,
but they're just dominating teams with their overall amount of
(48:51):
offensive skill. Right, dominating is the wrong word either.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
The two. They're just they're good.
Speaker 1 (48:56):
They're able to be good without being super athletic their
offensive skill, but they are the exceptions if you look
at the other teams Cleveland super Athletic, Golden State super Athletic,
Boston super Athletic, Oklahoma City super Athletic, Houston super Athletic,
all of the top five records in the league are
super athletic on the perimeter. Denver part of their turnaround
(49:18):
this season before Jokic took some time off this last week,
Peyton Watson, Christian Brown, Russell Westbrook, Julian Strader, they've gone
more athletic this year and so they've been a top
ten transition offense. They're winning one of those margins right
Orlando super Athletic, Minnesota super Athletic, Memphis super Athletic, Sacramento
(49:40):
super Athletic. Ten of the top twelve teams in the league,
and all of the top five are super athletic on
the perimeter, and so like in a lot of ways,
Golden State's roster to me is the perfect example of
this trade because with Golden State, if you were ranking
players based on like overall talent level, they don't. We
have a lot of guys that people have ranked super
(50:02):
high in the league, and yet they've been one of
the best teams in the league this year because the
specific strengths of that roster line up with what you
actually need to thrive in the modern NBA, which is
spaced out and super transition based, and you need to
cover ground and the only way you're going to cover
(50:22):
ground with athletes. Say what you want about Golden State's roster.
They have a ton of athletes and that has come
to fruition in a big way for them this season.
Number one the Cleveland Cavaliers four and oh week, but
a really light schedule. They had two wins against a
Bulls team that's creating the balls. Are not two and
seven in their last nine after getting embarrassed by Houston
last night, they beat the Sixers without all three of
their stars, and then they beat the Hornets. So not
(50:44):
a whole lot to get into there. Donno Mitchell's red
hot Darius Garland is two. Those two are averaging fifty
six points per game since our last rankings. They also
have seven guys averaging double figures since our last rankings.
But Celtics game tomorrow. Remember, I'm going to be covering
that game on Watch Playbacks. Pay attention to my Twitter
feed if you want to watch me and Mike break
down that game live. I also will be doing an
(51:04):
instant reaction to that game on YouTube live after the
final buzzer. And then, don't forget last week on Wednesday,
we had Cardi Rodriguez from the Chase Down podcast on
and we did an hour of Calves breakdown in that video.
So if you haven't checked that one out yet, head
back and check that one out. All right, guys, that's
all I have for today. That's our Power rankings for
the week of Monday, November eighteenth. We'll be back tomorrow
(51:25):
morning with I want to do a TIMPs tape session
on some of the Laker offense stuff I've talked about,
and then I'm gonna hit a couple of games from
tonight's slate as well, and I'll add whatever clips from
those games to the TIMPs tape segment Tuesday night. Like
I talked about Watch Playback as well as Calves Celtics
Instant Reaction on YouTube Wednesday morning, I haven't decided what
I'm gonna do yet, but we'll do something that covers
(51:46):
around the league, and then back to our normal schedule
after that. Don't forget we have our mail Bag that
I'm recording on Thursday, so drop a question in the mailbag,
comment in the YouTube comments. All right, guys, that is
all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you
guys for supporting me and supporting the show.
Speaker 2 (52:00):
I'll see you tomorrow. The volume
Host
Jason Timpf
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